I will always remember December 5, 2006. “Thank you for joining us on this conference call. This is Carolyn Wincer speaking. As you know, I am the Director of Astronaut Sales for Virgin Galactic. With me today at the International Luxury Travel Market here in Cannes is Matthew Upchurch, CEO of Virtuoso. “I will now read the names of the 47 travel consultants who will train to become “Accredited Space Agents, the first and only travel consultants in North America allowed to reserve seats aboard Virgin Galactic’s suborbital flights!”

Then I heard a lot of static and echoes on top of echoes. I was part of a big event, the beginning of a new era of consumer space travel eagerly awaiting to hear my name and I’m listening to the Morse code meets a yodeling contest in the Austrian Alps! “….John…” More crackling sounds… “Vic…” Will they read my name, have they read my name? Quickly, I sent an email to Cannes, “I CAN’T HEAR!!!” yes, in all caps! “I just received an email saying there’s a prob[crackle] with the [cracke]ection. I [crackle] call [crackle]ack!”

“Okay, I’m back. Can you hear me now?” That’s how this new phase of my career began and, yes, I was selected to be a pioneer of selling vacations to our newest destination, Space. I was on a conference call announcing a cutting edge journey into space and on Earth we couldn’t get a clear connection!

As soon as our names were read and praises given by some of the “Who’s Who in Travel”, the call ended and the flood of email instructions began. “Please read the following… study this…absorb that…” How was I going to digest all this information? Finally, a life-saving email, “Please reserve February 1 and 2, 2007, for our first formal training session to be held at the Kennedy Space Center in Cape Canaveral, Florida.”

You know, it’s hard to get my arms around this—I’ll be selling space journeys; I’m being asked to go to one of NASA’s locales to train? Is this for real or is this just hype to get us excited? Let me describe what the 2 days of training were like and you decide.

January 30, 2007 1:14 PM: Okay, I’m within 24 hours of the flight to Orlando, let me log in and print my boarding pass—I wonder if space journeys will require boarding passes? Well, definitely not the first several! Virgin Galactic has ordered 5 spacecrafts (actually, they are space planes according to Alex Tai, COO of Virgin Galactic, but space ships sounds so much sexier!) that will seat 6 astronauts and 2 pilots.

January 31, 2007 7:20 PM: Room service will suffice tonight—I arrived a couple of hours ago at the Okay Resort (name changed to avoid libel—it was difficult to find a wonderful property that would house all 47 of us AND be close to the Kennedy Space Center); I unpacked, and started reviewing the mass of literature we’ve been given. A good night’s sleep was in order so lights were out by 11:00 PM.

February 1, 2007 8:11 AM: Out the door and looking spiffy, I’m off for my first day of training and my 15 minutes of fame on The Today Show. The show has sent reporter Mike Leonard and a crew to join our training, video parts of it and run the segment on my favorite morning show—true statement, I am not brown-nosing! I start most days with the Today Show or the Daily Show reruns—same news, different spin!

As I board the bus that will take us to Day 1 of Training at NASA, I tell myself, “I bet this will all be playtime—so unnecessary! I could be back at home doing something valuable!”

I looked across the aisle at a guy fiddling with a big video camera, “Hi, I’m Barbara King and you’re…?” “Mike Leonard,” he replied. “Oh, you live in Winnetka! I taught first grade in Winnetka and my mother lives in Winnetka!” I scrounged to the bottom of my handbag and pulled out “The Ride of Our Lives: Roadside Lessons of an American family”, the recent book Mike wrote. “Would you autograph this for me, please?” “Hmm, Mike Leonard is really here! Maybe this training is for real—maybe this is not just some sci-fi dream?

We entered the Kennedy Space Center’s Welcome Center where we had to go through Security. “Cell phone, out, folks, and please turn them on. No scissors, sharp objects, firearms…the list is on the wall.” Passing through the line, a guard challenged me to press the number 5 on my phone. Ahh, my first test as an ASA??? No, they asked each person to press a number on their phone—just protocol!

Our first session began promptly at 9:30 AM. Carolyn Wincer billed this time as “Morning Tea with Carolyn”. I love working with so many Brits! They are so civilized! After a few pleasantries, we were divided into 2 groups; mine was Mach 3.3, the speed at which Spaceship 2 will travel into space after being horizontally launched from its mother ship, White Knight 2. Entering another room, I was handed a silver 3-ring binder stuffed with pages to read, study, and absorb. Is there a written test at the end? I wondered.

The morning sped by: lectures dotted with videos and Q&A. We gathered together at noon to lunch with the other group, G4, named for the force of gravity experienced as you speed home from space. The G4 group had toured the Astronaut Hall of Fame while we sat in a classroom taking copious notes—not fair! “Not to fear, my dear,” Carolyn sat down next to me, “You do the playtime tomorrow whilst the G4 Group hits the books!” Does she read minds? I better be careful what I think around her!

More learning followed lunch and there were so many terms for me to learn—Mach 3.3, G force, Gz, Gx, informed consent, feathered wing technology, micro-gravity, and Ansari X Prize.

Space exploration had stagnated in recent years. Motivated by competition with the USSR and a challenge issued by President Kennedy at his inaugural to get a man on the moon within the decade the US was eager to pour money and time into conquering space in the 60’s and early 70’s. Tragic accidents, budget cuts, and re-aligned priorities have brought us to an era of mostly unmanned space flights and robotic landings.

The X Prize was an award of $10,000,000 offered by a group formed by Dr. Peter Diamondis for the first private sector group that could build and send a vehicle into space and back safely within a two week period. While reading Charles Lindburg’s The Spirit of St. Louis, Diamondis learned that one of the chief motivators for Lindburg was the offer of $25,000 for the first person to successfully fly across the Atlantic. Perhaps, thought Diamondis, this method would work in this century!

In 2004, Burt Rutan of Scaled Composites won the coveted X Prize. With financial backing from Paul Allen of Microsoft fame, Rutan designed and built environmentally friendly Spaceship 1, a new and ultimately successful vehicle for repeated use to go to space and return.

Oops—I’m showing off my new-found knowledge, aren’t I? Back to my log of events:The night of February 1st, Virgin Galactic threw a Splash Down party to celebrate our first day of training. We were treated to a buffet dinner and great conversations! The home to bed to dream about space hotels and destination weddings in space!

February 2, 2007 9:43 PM: “This certifies that Barbara S. King has successfully completed the training course to become an official Accredited Space Agent,” announced Tai and Upchurch followed by handshakes, hugs, my official ASA pin, photo ops, and a certificate signed by Sir Richard Branson!

We had just dined at the Apollo/Saturn V Center—I mean, in the Center, not some dining room tucked off to the side—we dined in the main hall underneath a huge Saturn V Rocket. At the ending of Day 2 of our training, we were instructed to return to our hotel, don some “party” clothes, and return to the main NASA building, and then taken to an undisclosed location. The Kennedy Space Center is vast and huge, especially at night when it is closed to the public. The NASA bus first took us on a tour of the entire complex of buildings and launch sites that comprised the famed Center. “We are now approaching the Apollo/Saturn V Building,” George, our driver announced. “Please prepare to disembark.” What an evening I had and what an amazing few days! The morning of Day 2, Group Mach 3.3 played at being astronauts—centrifuge simulators for some, Rover rides for others, and a moon walk for me!

“Excuse me,” I said as I politely but firmly regained my place in line in front of an eager 5^th grader. We were waiting in line to experience a “Walk on the Moon” at the Astronaut Hall of Fame and there was no way I’d let anyone in front of me! I’ve been bitten by the Space Bug. I can feel it, I can see it, I can taste it, and I WANT IT! I am discovering that this is real, that we are on the frontier of a whole new era and I am very proud to be one of the pioneers!

March 7,2007 8:50 AM “It’s on, Michael! It’s on!” I was screaming to husband and also talking to my friend Kathy. The Today Show was airing the segment they had taped of our ASA training. By March 7, I knew I wouldn’t have 15 minutes of fame because I wasn’t interviewed; I wasn’t prodded; I wasn’t probed. But, maybe, just maybe, I’ll be in the background—kind of 15 minutes of fame divided by 47? And, lo and behold, there I was on TV, on the bus to Day 1 of training, chatting away to my seatmate! Oh the places I’ve been and oh the places I’ll go!

PS. Since I’ve returned home NASA and Virgin Galactic have announced they will jointly explore hybrid rocket motors and other items that would benefit both enterprises and all of us. After all, when we will go to space and look out at the Blue Marble, an affectionate name for Earth coined from a famous photo, we will see we are not countries or continents—we are one people, brothers and sisters who have been vested with the loving care of this planet we call home.